Objective

Content

The world is changing at a rapid pace, and so is its economic structure. We produce goods and services, such as compact disc players or financial derivatives, that did not exist 40 years ago, and may export these to countries, such as Estonia or the Ukraine, which did not even exist 15 years ago. The composition of world output shifts from goods to services. World trade flows, dominated by intra-industry trade, grow faster than world production levels, while the growth rate of foreign direct investment (FDI) surpasses even that of world trade. The international trade- and investment flows are largely influenced, or even dominated, by multinational enterprises (MNEs). Thus, imperfect competition is important on the economic scene, which seems to be increasingly influenced by global developments.

This seminar deals with the analytic and pragmatic consequences of the above developments for economic modelling, policy and institutional arrangements. Some of the topics to be covered include: the role of imperfect competition and MNEs for international trade- and investment flows, the importance of new goods and quality improvements for competition and welfare, the role of knowledge spill-overs and agglomeration effects for the development and prosperity of regions, the impact of globalization on labour markets, and the changing institutional structure of the world trading system (World Trade Organization, etc.).

Required Literature

To be announced

					5-7-2002